Thursday, December 31, 2015

Editor's note - unless something incredibly juicy happens, this will be my last post for 2015. It's been wild and it's been fun. We won a lot in 2015. Hopefully in 2016, our minds will be not becoming stagnant or complacent. Hopefully we will be aggressively working on keeping what we have won and gaining more. Thank you to all of my readers and supporters. You mean the world to me. Have a safe and happy new year. And let's come back to gain more.

Indiana Lawmaker Introduces ‘Pay To Pee’ Bill For Transgender People - Another nonsensical thing we will be fighting in 2016. In 2015, the transgender community became more visible. As they did, some nasty individuals began to reduce the dignity of their lives to horror stories about who will use what bathrooms and monsters preying on children. Expect more of the same in 2016, unfortunately.

In 2015, marriage equality was officially legalized and it was about damn time.

The legalization of marriage equality represents so much. After a long campaign in which we lost many painful battles, the often dreamed possibility became a reality and millions of same-sex couples and their children had the legitimacy they should have had in the beginning.

But it means so much more.

Granted, some of our own aren't exactly happy about having the right to marry. Some claim that things like marriage is forcing the lgbt community into "conforming" to heteronormative behavior and roles. Some claim that our uniqueness as a community is falling by the wayside because we are attempting to "become" like heterosexual couples.

I don't know a thing about all of that. But this is what I do know.

Before I realized that I was gay, I had the usual dream of wanting to be married and having a family. But after I realized that I was gay, that dream dissipated because at that time, very few thought of gays having families and children. All of the messages drummed into me by society was the quite the opposite.

So my dream was destroyed. It wasn't that I decided not to go that direction. Someone had already decided to deny me what I felt should be a crucial part of my life's desire. Needless to say, it devastated me. It was a nasty message sent to me that because I am gay, I am inferior. That I don't get to pick my life's paths. That I was not worthy of having a family, nurturing, or raising children, not because I didn't prove myself of being capable, but because someone else had already decided for me.

That message played a huge role in the depression which gripped me back then and it wasn't pretty. I wish I could say that now things have changed and that hurt of realizing just low I placed in the so-called pecking order of society disappeared when marriage equality became legal. But it hasn't.

Today, I'm 44-years-old and I am not pining for marriage. If it happens, great. If not, then I will be okay. But even now, there is a part of me who is still that young gay man with a void unfairly carved into his heart by the ignorance and religious self-righteousness of others. I am still that young gay man who watched his heterosexual friends love, lose, cry and go through the rituals of having a relationship while silently hating them all with such a hot jealousy that I am ashamed to admit it even now.

And I'm confused. Am I okay with no longer having the dream of being married and having a family because I gave up a part of my soul in order to survive? Is there a small part inside of me so deeply hidden which hasn't rejected the message I was given as a young gay man, i.e. the message saying "you're a fag. And fags don't have families, children, or happy endings."

I don't know and I don't think that I ever will know. But at this juncture in my life, I take solace that younger lgbts are no longer being told by society what I was told. I want our kids to have choices. If they want marriage, family, and the stereotypical white picket fence life, then it's there for them. But if they don't want that, then that is also okay.

But it's their choice No one has the right to deprive our lgbt kids of their desires or dreams of however direction they want to take their lives. And most importantly, no one has the right to inflict upon our children psychological scars which can continue to haunt them even as adults.

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Sweet Cakes Bakers Still Actively Fundraising, Cash Pouring In - So now things become more clear. Having been recently forced to pay the money they owe, anti-gay bakers Melissa and Aaron Klein, with a little help from the lying Fox News personality Todd Starnes, is using this new situation to raise even more money. They do this by implying that the state is seizing all the money they have (making sure to omit the obscenely large amount of money they have been given via donations by gullible folks.) Unless you are an actual Christian, one who dislikes all forms of deception; especially done in God's name, there is no need for anger. When people destroy the integrity of their own faith system, all you should do is observe and pity them.

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

There are times, when I want to point out the basic dishonest of the anti-gay religious right in America, I don't have to go on a long expository. I just merely point out the actions of one of their spokespeople. Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, "Crazy" Jane Folger, or the American Family Association are always good for it.

And today, it's Fox News personality Todd Starnes.

Seriously, someone needs to ask serious questions about how Starnes continues to have a job, even with Fox News, when he has a reputation of distortions and outright lying to further the "anti-Christian persecution" angle which is extremely popular amongst conservatives. (Editor's note - actually, The Atlantic has asked those questions.)

Today, he put his poison pen on the case of the Oregon anti-gay bakery, Melissa's Sweet Cakes.

The owners of a Portland-area bakery that denied service to a
same-sex couple has paid more than $135,000 to cover a legally-binding
order from the Bureau of Labor and Industries. Charlie Burr, the communications director for BOLI, told KOIN 6 News
the agency received a payment of $136,927.07 from Aaron Klein on Monday.
That payment followed a collection effort earlier this month that
netted about $7000 earlier in December, Burr said. Klein and his wife, Melissa, own Sweet Cakes by Melissa. They refused
to bake a wedding cake for Laurel and Rachel Bowman-Cryer, which BOLI
ruled was unlawful discrimination. In July, BOLI said a state exemption for religious organizations and schools does not allow private business owners to deny service to potential customers because of sexual orientation.

It's pretty standard, although with some details omitted. However, check out how Starnes, via the American Family Assocation's One News Now, and probably other places where his column ran, spins the story:

Melissa Klein was checking her bank
accounts just a few weeks before Christmas when her face turned ashen.
The money was gone – every single penny.

Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries had confiscated all the cash
in Mrs. Klein’s checking account and savings account as well as a
special account set aside for their church tithe.

Yes, friends – the state of Oregon stole money meant for our Lord.

Mrs. Klein and her husband, Aaron, are devout evangelical Christians who own a mom-and-pop bakery – Sweet Cakes By Melissa.

In July, they were ordered to pay more than $135,000 in damages to a
lesbian couple after they refused to bake their wedding cake. The Kleins
objected because of their religious beliefs.

The Cruz campaign combines a traditional get-out-the-vote operation — making phone calls and knocking on doors — with modern data analytics to identify and mobilize supporters, beginning with Iowa on Feb. 1. He's pairing that with state-by-state teams filled with grassroots tea party leaders, local elected officials and state lawmakers who hail from the most conservative corners of the GOP.

Outspoken Josh Duggar Defender Mike Huckabee: 'I Never Defended Josh' - Mike Huckabee is playing serious damage control. He recently claimed that he NEVER defended the now infamous Josh Duggar. Huckabee says he was merely defending Duggar's family. What I am about to say is going to probably offend many of my readers, so I profusely apologize, but BITCH, PLEASE!!!!!

How Anti-Gay Talking Points Are Being Recycled For The Transgender Community - Not at all surprising in the least. Media Matters confirms what us monitors of anti-lgbt propaganda have known and have been shouting about for the longest time. Anti-transgender talking points are nothing more than general anti-gay talking points which have been scrubbed up, altered, and recycled. I hear so many folks whining about "how do we combat this" or "how do we fight this. we need a plan." @!% ! The plan has been there all of the time, only some folks have been too timid to take initiative. You DO NOT wait until the next referendum battle or the next public vote or the next public controversy. The fact that anti-lgbt groups use these lies as talking points should be THE argument. Until the lgbt community harnesses all of our resources (television, magazine, blogs, online news services, etc) to initiate the battles instead of waiting for them to be initiated on us, we are going to continue to look like and be treated like walking victims.

As the above tweet shows, presidential candidate and Texas Senator Ted Cruz should be garnering more attention in terms of being the candidate we should be weary of. Not only has he gained the support of the religious right, but his followers aren't exactly "all there."
Eat your heart your out, Donald Trump.

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

This Kryptonite Argument Against Trans Rights Is Beating America’s Top LGBT Group - Kryptonite argument my ass. We've been here before and even way before the time I began blogging. The anti-gay right establishes a powerful talking point which is attuned to exploiting ignorance and fear (usually implying that lgbts will harm children.) We run around like scared animals due to our inability to defuse it. The talking point runs its course and we start winning again, until the new anti-lgbt talking point takes hold. We are like rabbits trembling under the shadow of a hawk. If I've said it once, I've said it repeatedly. We have to call out the totality of anti-gay talking points before we have to fight them in such things like ordinance fights. And yes, I am talking about coming out the blue and calling out the anti-gay industry for their lies with the goal of initiating a national conversation of anti-gay propaganda. We will look like the aggressors, but isn't it time for us to stop having to explain our lives and instead making the anti-gay industry explain their lies?

Kentucky Republican Gov. Matt Bevin ordered the state to prepare new
marriage licenses that do not include the names of county clerks, in an
attempt to protect the religious beliefs of clerk Kim Davis and other
local elected officials.

Bevin said he directed the Kentucky Department of Libraries and
Archives to issue the revised marriage license forms to all county
clerks. The executive order comes after Davis, the Rowan County clerk,
spent five days in jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to
same-sex couples. Davis said she could not issue the licenses because
they had her name on them.

Bevin said he issued the executive order to “ensure that the
sincerely held religious beliefs of all Kentuckians are honored.” It was
one of five executive orders he issued Tuesday, the first of his
administration, that mostly revised or suspended recent actions by
former Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear.

. . . It’s unclear how Bevin’s order will affect a federal lawsuit brought
by four couples against Davis. One of Davis’ deputy clerks has been
issuing altered marriage licenses to eligible couples since September.
They do not include Davis’ name or the name of the county. The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents the four
couples, has asked U.S. District Judge David Bunning to order Davis to
reissue the licenses. Bunning has not made a decision yet.

No doubt, Davis and her supporters will be claiming that this is what she merely wanted and it is a victory for her.

Don't be fooled. Davis is a silly demagogue who attempted to use the power of her office to force her religious beliefs on others. Bevin's order means nthing because gay couples in Kentucky can still legally marry.

And there is nothing Davis can do about it.

In other words, we are still drinking the champagne, so let her enjoy the little drips coming from our glasses.

Franklin Graham Quits The GOP - Franklin Graham, demagogue extraordinaire, is angry that the GOP didn't defund Planned Parenthood. And he hasn't exactly been in OUR corner, constantly attacking our equality victories. Because of these things, Graham is officially quitting the Republican party. And according to the article, he is pushing for a theocracy in all put name:

Franklin Graham will, effectively, follow in the footsteps of his pals like the American Family Association and their David Lane, who heads AFA's American Renewal Project, to sire an army of Christian pastors to take over America!
"Unless more godly men and women get in this process and change this wicked system, our country is in for trouble. I want to challenge Christians, even pastors, across the country to pray about running for office where they can have an impact. We need mayors, country commissioners, city council members, school board members who will uphold biblical values."

Yes, because this sort of thing worked so well in the past if one will ignore certain eras of religious persecutions throughout history. Not saying that Graham and his ilk will be totally successful, but this is still nothing to laugh off. At the very least, Franklin and company can cause the lgbt community considerable amount of trouble on the local state county, and city areas.

Monday, December 21, 2015

After watching this clip of presidential candidate Marco Rubio whine about being called a bigot because he opposes marriage equality and would like to reverse the Supreme Court ruling which legalized marriage equality, please answer my simple question. I think my question puts a much needed outlook on the situation:

Okay here is the simple question - Marco Rubio's desired actions would disenfranchise scores of same-sex families, particularly those with children by taking away the rights they earned.
So why does it seem that folks are more worried about whether or not Rubio (and folks of his ilk) are called bigots more than the families whom his actions would hurt?

I suggest people ask that question often and aggressively. I don't give a #@! whether or not Rubio worries about being called a bigot. I do care that he is deliberately telling Americans that they are second-class citizens when it comes to families and relationships in spite of the fact that they did everything right to protect their families and relationships.

The lgbt community and all sensible people in general may have a new headachestomach ache in the Ohio legislature:

The president of a Christian activist organization will
challenge incumbent state Sen. Larry Obhof of Montville Township for the
22nd district in the March Republican primary. . . .Porter is president and founder of Faith 2 Action, a
Christian organization that says it opposes same-sex marriage. Before
starting the organization in 2003, she was the national director for the
Center for Reclaiming America for five years and a legislative director
at Ohio Right to Life for nine years.

According to Right Wing Watch:

Porter has also long warned that increasing acceptance of gay rights will turn Christians into criminals who will eventually be rounded up and tossed in jail, going so far as to try and prevent the Supreme Court from ruling on the issue of gay marriage. Recently she produced an anti-gay documentary called "Light Wins" that featured a variety of Republican members of Congress, GOP presidential hopefuls and anti-gay activists warning that gay activists are "grooming" and endangering children, for which they should be held criminally liable.

But for my money, the following video, in which Folger demands that God give people like her control of the media:

Now for those of you who are laughingly proclaiming that Folger would never win a seat in the Ohio legislature, I remind you that stranger things have happened. For example, THIS GUY below is now a member of the Colorado legislature:

Friday, December 18, 2015

Waivers Allowing Christian Schools To Ban LGBT Students Spike In 2015 - "Religious liberty," my foot. I don't care how religious you are, no one should have the right to receive tax dollars AND be able to discriminate against lgbts, period. I don't care if it sounds cold, but the tax dollar proponent of this argument (one which is hardly ever mentioned) is a VITAL part of the situation. The last time I checked, lgbts pay taxes, too.

Thursday, December 17, 2015

According to Media Matters, NPR is expressing regret for not properly identifying the Family Research Council's Peter Sprigg when he took part in a debate on same-sex parenting last week:

After NPR's The Diane Rehm Show hosted a spokesman from a
notorious anti-gay hate group during a discussion of same-sex adoption,
NPR's ombudsman admitted that the show erred in failing to properly
identify the group.

On the December 10 edition of NPR's The Diane Rehm Show, guest host Melissa Ross interviewed Peter Sprigg,
Senior Fellow for Policy Studies at the Family Research Council (FRC),
to discuss legal battles over parenting and adoption rights for same-sex
couples. While the Southern Poverty Law Center has listed FRC as an
anti-gay hate group since 2010, NPR didn't identify Sprigg as a hate group spokesman, and Sprigg used the platform to peddle misinformation about LGBT equality.

In a post responding to criticisms
of the segment, NPR's ombudsman Elizabeth Jensen joined Diane Rehm in
acknowledging that the show erred by "not us[ing] a clear identifier"
for Sprigg. Rehm admitted that she has "to do a better job of being more
careful about identification":

A portion of the post reads as thus:

Media Matters wrote that NPR (which distributes the show but does not
produce it) gave Sprigg "a national platform to peddle misinformation
about same-sex parenting." The organization Faithful America also sent
an email blast that said: "Tell NPR: Don't let anti-gay hate group speak
for Christians." In the last 45 seconds of the program, as Ross was focused on
wrapping up, Sprigg said that "most orthodox Christians" believe that
"engaging in homosexual conduct is contrary to the will of God," a claim
that depends on the murky definition of "orthodox Christians." (See
this May 2015 Pew Research Center poll looking at Americans' attitudes
over whether their religious beliefs are in conflict with
homosexuality.) But as I read the transcript, the show's other guests
forcefully pushed back against Sprigg's other claims at pretty much
every turn.

I asked Rehm about the guest booking. Her view (with which I agree):
"I certainly don't see that there's a problem having someone like that
on the program." Where the show erred, she said, "was we did not use a
clear identifier [for Sprigg] other than the title of his organization."
She added, "We have to do a better job of being more careful about
identification."

Of course, the saving grace of the entire situation is how Sprigg's distortions about same-sex parenting were exposed by genuine experts during Rehm's show. Still, proper identification of Sprigg and FRC doesn't hurt. Neither he nor his group have any business being passed off as genuine experts on anything about the lgbt community.

In the hands of the anti-gay right, a study created to help the lgbt community has become a weapon against it. According to the phony news site, One News Now:

After
conducting an extensive study on homosexual behavior, the Centers for
Disease Control (CDC) reports that those involved in such lifestyles
experience a far greater amount of violence from one another than those
in heterosexual relationships.

CDC’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey
is a first-of-its-kind study geared to determine the difference between
the victimization of men and women by sexual orientation. The results
show that men and women involved in homosexual behavior undergo much
higher rates of sexual violence than men and women who are heterosexual. Surprising to many, homosexual women
experience more violence than men. According to the study, a whopping 44
percent of lesbians were either raped, experienced physical abuse,
and/or were stalked by their intimate partners during their lifetime.
Even more shockingly, 61 percent of bisexual women endured such violence
from their partners.

It is also reported that 37 percent of
bisexual women indicated they were stalked, which is more than double
the rate that heterosexual women experience from their male partners.
Furthermore, the CDC found that 37 percent of bisexual women were
injured during the rape, physical violence, and/or stalking that they
experienced at the hands of their sexual partners.Tragically, 48 percent of bisexual women
who reported that they were raped said that their first experience of
being raped occurred when they were adolescents between the ages of 11
and 17.The research also shows that 26 percent of
homosexual men experienced rape, physical violence and/or stalking by
their intimate partners. It’s even higher for bisexual men, who
experience these types of assaults at a rate of 37 percent.

One News Now does, for a time, give objective reporting here. However the title of the article, CDC report: Homosexual lifestyle extremely violent, gives an indication as to what direction the article will end up. And after reporting the above facts, One New Now steers the article in the "homosexuality is a dangerous lifestyle" angle:

Refuting many of the claims by LGBT
activists that homosexual behavior is a natural biological condition,
the CDC report found that a large percentage of homosexual transgenders
and bisexual women experienced sexual violence during their childhood
years, which could have likely resulted in their choices in adulthood to
adopt a homosexual lifestyle. Even though the government agency would
not make an official determination that such early exposure to sexual
violence was the cause of men and women ultimately choosing to engage in
homosexual behavior, the statistics themselves appear to point to such a
connection.

But at no time did the CDC report blame the so-called "homosexual lifestyle" for the violence. In fact, the CDC makes no judgement on any of the sexual orientations of the perpetrators in its report, unlike One News Now, which was so quick to point the finger of "unclean" at the lgbt community, while not attacking heterosexuals for the amount of violence in their relationships.

The fake news site merely took CDC numbers and extrapolated a false dichotomy against the lgbt community, i.e. the notion that homosexuality is unnatural because gay and bisexual relationships are fraught with violence; something which the CDC never even stated.Furthermore, One News Now omitted that fact the data here is from 2010. It also omitted that this report is a facet of a larger group of CDC reports, Injury Prevention & Control : Division of Violence Prevention, which also looks at other issues, such as Elder Abuse, Global Violence, and Child Maltreatment.

The sad irony is that the way One News Now twists the CDC report could play a role in future problems with reporting violence in gay and bisexual relationships. By stigmatizing the victims for being gay or bisexuals, rather than assessing the incidents objectively, the false news site creates an atmosphere which would make it difficult for victims to report the incidents and also for the CDC and other organizations to create ways to combat it.

One of the main reasons why it is difficult to get the truth out about the deceptive nature of organizations like FRC is due to their ability to exploit religious beliefs. They tend to use the phrase "personally held religious beliefs" as an excuse to push a variety of anti-lgbt points of view.

But in the case of NPR, no one was arguing about religious beliefs. It was purely about science and research. And it was because of this reason that Sprigg failed. And more than that, his failure epitomizes how anti-lgbt groups lie and distort. Religious right groups such as the Family Research Council, the American Family Association, the Liberty Counsel, etc. have a belief that homosexuality is a sin. and because of that, they stand against all facets of lgbt equality.

However, knowing that having a religious belief against homosexuality isn't enough to prevent pro-lgbts laws from being passed, they tend to distort or cherry-pick science in order to create the false idea that homosexuality itself is a so-called dangerous lifestyle.

Sometimes they are successful in pushing this meme, but other times they get caught lying. I have collected a few incidents over the years in which researchers, professors, Ph.Ds., and various others have called out anti-gay groups for distorting science. I've published this list a number of times but always enjoy re-publishing it because we need to hammer this into everyone's minds. The media won't do it, so it's up to us. And I prefer it that way:

In 2012, Seton Hall professor Dr. Theodora Sirota complained about how her work was being distorted by Rick Gibbons of the anti-gay groups NARTH (the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality) to make the case against same-sex families.

Six researchers
of a 1997 Canadian study (Robert S. Hogg, Stefan A. Strathdee,
Kevin J.P. Craib, Michael V. Shaughnessy, Julio Montaner, and Martin
T. Schehter), who complained in 2001 that religious right groups
were distorting their work to claim that gay men have a short life
span.

The authors of the book Unequal Opportunity: Health Disparities Affecting Gay and Bisexual Men in the United States
(Professors Richard J. Wolitski, Ron Stall, and Ronald O.
Valdiserri), complained in 2009 that their work was being distorted by
Focus on the Family.

Dr. Carol Gilligan,
Professor of Education and Law at New York University, complained in 2006 that former Focus on the Family head James Dobson
misrepresented her research to attack LGBT families.

Dr. Kyle Pruett, Ph.D.,
a professor of child psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, also in 2006 complained that Focus on the Family distorted his work.

Dr. Robert Spitzer,
Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University,
consistently complained that religious right groups distorted his
study to claim that the LGBT orientation is easily changeable. In 2012, Spitzer apologized to the gay community for the original
study which religious right groups were distorting.

Judith Stacey,
Professor of Sociology at New York University, has had to, on
more than one occasion, cry foul over how religious right groups
distorted her work on LGBT families.

John Horgan, a science journalist and Director of the Center
for Science Writings at the Stevens Institute of Technology complained in 2010 that various religious right groups were distorting his work on homosexuality.

In 2011, Tom Minnery, a spokesman from Focus on the Family, was dressed down
by Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) during a Congressional hearing for
deliberately misrepresenting a study. Minnery initially used the study
to claim, as Fitzgibbons did in his misrepresentation, that same-sex
households are inferior to two parent mother/father households.

Clinton campaign launches for ‘LGBT for Hillary’ - Girlfriend, I LOVE you and I support your presidential campaign, but work on getting diverse faces. More African-Americans and other people of color as well as different age groups. Also, keep Ricky Martin. He is a winner.

Monday, December 14, 2015

Presidential candidate Marco Rubio attempts to portray those who stand against marriage equality as victims. It's a non sequitir made famous by former NOM head Maggie Gallagher and a cynical attempt to take attention off of the fact that lgbts won the right to marriage equality fair and square.

It is also an attempt to erase our families and children from the public debate. Coming out of Rubio's deceptive mouth, the phrase "traditional values" seems to be a buzzword to claim that lgbt relationships and families are inferior.

Indiana’s Limited LGBT Protections Under Fire By Lawsuit - For those who think the fight for equality is over, if the Rubio piece above doesn't bother you, then check this one out. People actually sit around crafting plans to take away lgbt rights, even if they aren't many. And they are paid good money to do it.

NPR hosted a spokesman from a notorious anti-gay hate group during a
discussion of same-sex adoption, giving him a national platform to
peddle misinformation about same-sex parenting.

On the December 10 edition of NPR's The Diane Rehm Show, guest host Melissa Ross interviewed Peter Sprigg,
Senior Fellow for Policy Studies at the Family Research Council (FRC)
to discuss legal battles over parenting and adoption rights for same-sex
couples.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has listed FRC as an anti-gay hate group since 2010
due to the organization's propagation of known falsehoods about LGBT
people. The group has a history of making wild and inflammatory attacks
on LGBT equality while masquerading as a serious policy organization in the media. Sprigg, who served as an ordained Baptist minister before joining FRC, has called for recriminalizing gay sex in the U.S. and suggested LGBT people should be "export[ed]" from the country.

But NPR didn't identify Sprigg as a hate group spokesman, and Sprigg
used the platform to peddle misinformation about LGBT equality. Sprigg
cited a widely discredited paper to suggest that children raised by same-sex couples perform poorly, and resurrected the long debunked
horror story that Catholic adoption agencies have been shut down for
refusing to serve same-sex couples. While guest host Melissa Ross did
not push back on Sprigg's talking points, fellow guest Emily
Hetch-McGowan, Director of Public Policy the Family Equality
Council, called out FRC's use of discredited research

I am not one for shutting down views or keeping points of view from being debated, but Media Matters does make a good point. The media cannot ignore the fact that the Family Research Council has an ugly history of spinning distortions and lies against the lgbt community. And the organization should not be treated as a credible source when it comes to issues of same-sex parenting or any other lgbt issue.

But I'm not totally upset at NPR because, while the network gave Sprigg a platform to spread more distortions, it also provided a platform for actual experts and people in the know (Hetch-McGowan, Michele Zavos -
managing partner and founder of Zavos Juncker Law Group, a metropolitan D.C. area firm specializing in family law, and Martin Gill
plaintiff in the lawsuit which overturned Florida's ban on adoption by same-sex couples
) to refute Sprigg and expose him as a liar.

The following are portions of the debate (in transcript form) in which Sprigg was called out:

Friday, December 11, 2015

Editor's note - Today's news briefs may be either pre-empted or postponed.

Ted Cruz

Here is a scary FACT. While Donald Trump is grabbing all of the headlines and attention, Ted Cruz (a more serious candidate for president) has been quietly grabbing support and endorsements from anti-gay organizations and figures.

Ted Cruz won a major victory in his effort to consolidate support from the Religious Right today when he was endorsed by Bob Vander Plaats, who leads the Iowa-based conservative group, The Family Leader.
Vander Plaats, a two-time gubernatorial candidate who in the two previous election cycles backed Iowa caucus winners Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum, respectively, offers one of the most highly sought after endorsements in the state: Donald Trump reportedly joked that he would turn his plane around to join The Family Leader’s presidential forum if Vander Plaats would guarantee him his backing.
Vander Plaats is one of several right-wing figures to coalesce behind Cruz, who has attracted the support of ultraconservative activists like Troy Newman, who wishes the government would execute abortion providers; Ron Baity, a pastor who links gay rights to Ebola; Flip Benham, a convicted abortion doctor stalker who holds protests at gay couples’ weddings; Sandy Rios, a virulently anti-LGBT radio host and hate group official; Dick Black, a Virginia lawmaker with noxious views on marital rape and “baby pesticide”; and Cynthia Dunbar, who thinks gay rights advocacy is “the same type of thing that was done in pre-Holocaust Germany.”

And then there are these words from Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council via email:

The campaign's intentional effort to win over social conservatives is
paying off, as Cruz pieces together a formidable army of support from
evangelicals, whose causes he has never failed to champion. While Ted
has been effective on an array of national issues, he hasn't strayed
from his theme -- which is that 2016 is going to be a "religious liberty
election." That continues to resonate with Americans, who open their
newspapers every day to a new story of religious hostility -- whether
it's the Air Force Academy football team or the University of Tennessee's censorship.

Unlike the ghosts of candidates past, Cruz is not only unafraid of
the tough issues -- he's fearless in tackling them. Just this week, the
senator blasted the most disliked commander-in-chief in generations, telling a group of black pastors
that it's no wonder President Obama has a pathetic level of support (15
percent) from American service members. "You look at the military,"
Cruz told FRC's E.W. Jackson, "and one of the things we've seen is
morale in the military under the Obama administration has plummeted, and
it has plummeted because you have a commander-in-chief that doesn't
support our soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines." He won't even
name the enemy "radical Islamic terrorism," Cruz went on, and is "more
interested in promoting homosexuality in the military" than in
"defeating our enemy."

I don't know how you feel, but I personally think Cruz is scarier than Trump. Trump is a self-aggrandizing blowhard. Cruz may actually have a shot at being the GOP nominee.

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Even though I hope Cincinnati's pro-football team loses to the Pittsburgh Steelers this weekend, I must commend the city for taking the right step in ensuring the health of lgbts and particularly lgbt children. And it did this in spite of opposition.

Almost two dozen pastors and citizens packed Cincinnati Council
Chambers on Wednesday in an organized effort to stop a proposed city ban
on so-called "conversion" therapy for gay youth.

In the end,
council voted 7-2 to pass the law, which prohibits therapy designed to
change sexual orientation or gender identity for minors, and imposes a
$200-a-day fine on violators. Cincinnati follows four states –
California, Oregon, Illinois and New Jersey – and the District of
Columbia banning the therapy, becoming the first city outside of D.C. to
do so.

. . . "This is about saving the lives of LGBT people," said Councilman
Chris Seelbach, who led the effort to bring the ban to the city. He
spoke of Leelah Alcorn, a transgender teenager who killed herself last
December; her suicide note cited the controversial therapy to which she
had been subjected.
"She challenged us to make her death matter, and we’re doing just that," Seelbach said.

Twenty-one people
spoke out against the ban during Council's comment period, decrying it
as an assault on free speech and freedom of religion.

These folks should be aware of the fact that both freedom of speech and religion have reasonable limits. You can't yell "fired" in crowded theatre and parents can't keep their children from getting proper medical care even if they claim said medical care is against their religion.

And according to several medical organizations; including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and the American College of Physicians, "conversion" or "ex-gay" therapy is not only fraudulent but can pose a serious danger.

The Family Research Council uses junk science and lies to demonize the Muslim community, just like it usually does against the lgbt community. And it wasn't that long ago that a member of that group was talking about "exporting" gays, much like Donald Trump is talking about not allowing Muslim immigrants to come to the United States. It's sad and funny that scapegoating never changes except for the names of the innocents who are targeted.

I generally go after the Family Research Council for the lies and distortions it spews about lgbts. However, since Donald Trump's eruption against the Muslim community, all attention seems to be there.

And this includes that of the Family Research Council's.

I wish I could say that the organization actually shows itself as the Christian group it claims to be - i.e. the reason it claims to be against lgbt equality - by calling out Trump's incendiary and prejudiced rhetoric, but no such luck.

What most people either don't realize or willfully ignore is that
only 16 percent of Islam is a religion -- the rest is a combination of
military, judicial, economic, and political system. Christianity, by
comparison, isn't a judicial or economic code -- but a faith. So to
suggest that we would be imposing some sort of religious test on Muslims
is inaccurate. Sharia is not a religion in the context of the First
Amendment. Under the framework proposed by Senators Ted Cruz (R-Texas)
and Rick Santorum, America wouldn't vet refugees based on religion but
an ideology that's incompatible with American liberty. "I've proposed
actual concrete things [like eliminating the visa lottery system] and
immigration law that would have -- not the effect of banning all
Muslims, but a lot of them," Santorum explained.

The bottom line is this: the U.S. Constitution is an agreement
between people about how they'll be governed. What good is it if people
immigrate to America with the sole purpose of undermining that contract?
We shouldn't be embarrassed to say that we oppose those who want to
come to the United States to destroy it. And while most Muslims are not
radicalized, Sharia certainly encourages it. Based on polling from the Center for Security Policy,
that's the system most would choose. The majority of Muslims in America
believe they "'should have the choice of being governed by Sharia
[law].' Sharia authorizes such atrocities as murder against
non-believers who won't convert, beheadings, and more unthinkable acts
that pose great harm to Americans, especially women."

First of all, for an organization constantly whining about attacks on religious liberty, it is extremely hypocritical for the Family Research Council to dictate what encompasses Islam. No matter what the organization says, Islam is a religion, just like Christianity. And if one looked at the historical perspective, Christianity once embraced a military, judicial, and economic code in Europe and in the early days of this country. Lastly, as much as FRC likes to brag how Christian beliefs encompasses the actions and decisions of its favored legislators and leaders, the fact that the group seeks to pull back and claim that Christianity is merely a "faith" is morally dishonest.

Wednesday, December 09, 2015

I noticed that the Family Research Council, that lovely "Christian" group, has been conveniently silent during this madness with Donald Trump and Muslims. It's probably because a few years back, a spokesman with the group, Peter Sprigg, made the following comment about "exporting" gays:

We Were Turned Away on What Should Have Been Our Happiest Day Because We're a Same-sex Couple
- This wonderful post underscores what we need to do when it comes to
the bogus religious liberty argument. The religious right bogarts time
focusing on those who discriminate, painting them as the victims when
they are not. We need more lgbt couples telling THEIR stories of how
they were discriminated against and how this discrimination is an attack
on their rights and dignity.

FRC: 'Sexual Radicals' Are Coming After 'Your Family' - Lovely! Tis the season to fundraise by demonizing lgbts. For the Family Research Council's information, we are not after families. We just want Judy Garland's birthday to be declared an international holiday . . .

Thanks to Donald Trump, the 2016 presidential election is turning into a sort of open season on Muslims. However, the lgbt community shouldn't feel left out. We're not exactly left behind on the pecking scale of scapegoating. Think Progress has come out with an excellent article showing that while Trump has made attacks on Muslims into a main issue, other GOP candidates have extreme anti-gay positions. Allow me to give a few examples:

Rubio

Marco Rubio:

In an interview this weekend
with David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network, Marco Rubio
outlined outlined extensive plans for enabling discrimination against
LGBT people in the name of religious liberty. As president, Rubio said
he would do the following:

Only appoint Supreme Court Justices committed to undoing marriage equality and a woman’s right to an abortion.

Protect religious organizations that wish to refuse service to same-sex couples.

Rubio seemed to imply that employing and serving LGBT people were
themselves sinful actions. “There are many government contractors and
small companies who provide services to the government who are
faith-based people, and they are being compelled to sin by government in
their business conduct,” he said. “That is not something we should be
supporting.”

Cruz

Ted Cruz:

Ted Cruz recently sat down with National Organization for Marriage
founder Robert George for an interview on EWTN, a Catholic television
network. In one segment,
Cruz agreed with George that the Supreme Court’s marriage equality
decision was “profoundly wrong,” “fundamentally illegitimate,”
“lawless,” and “not based on the Constitution.”

Cruz then referenced Justice Anthony Kennedy’s recent comments that a
public official that can not follow the decision, like Kim Davis, should resign.
During his remarks, Kennedy alluded to the fact that very few judges
resigned from the Nazi German government. Thus, Cruz claimed, he was
comparing the Supreme Court to Nazis. “This isn’t me calling them the
Nazis,” Cruz explained, “this is Justice Kennedy calling the court on
which he serves, calling the opinion that he wrote — analogizing that to
the Nazi decrees that we must obey. That is an arrogance, it is an
elitism, it is being out of touch with our nation.
”
In another segment,
Cruz fielded a question about accommodations for transgender students
in public schools. He condemned such policies as “ridiculous” decisions
made by “zealots.” “I don’t want my daughters taking showers with little
boys; I don’t want them when they’re in junior high or high school. And
it’s absurd. No parents do.”

In light of what we have gained this year - i.e. marriage equality - it would be cultural suicide for the lgbt community to sit this election out or not pay attention to the Islamophobic rhetoric coming out of the mouths of the GOP.

How One Illinois School Really, Really Wants To Discriminate - One thing which is clear is something everyone is missing in terms of just how sinister transphobia is as compared to basic homophobia. False claims about gays and lesbians being predators were centered more on adults. The negative effects of these claims trickled down to gay and lesbian children, making us feel isolated and depressed. In the case of transgender children, the anti-gay right and their supporters have NO compunctions with putting the bullseye directly on the child.

About Me

Alvin McEwen is 46-year-old African-American gay man who resides in Columbia, SC.
McEwen's blog, Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, and writings have been mentioned by Americablog.com, Goodasyou.org, People for the American Way, PageOneQ.com, The Washington Post, Raw Story, The Advocate, Media Matters for America, Crooksandliars.com, Thinkprogress.org, Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish, Melissa Harris-Perry, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, Newsweek, The Daily Beast, The Washington Blade, and Foxnews.com.
In addition, he is also a past contributor to Pam's House Blend,Justice For All, LGBTQ Nation, and Alternet.org. He is a present contributor to the Daily Kos and the Huffington Post,
He is the 2007 recipient of the Harriet Daniels Hancock Volunteer of the Year Award and the 2010 recipient of the Order of the Pink Palmetto from the SC Pride Movement as well as the 2009 recipient of the Audre Lorde/James Baldwin Civil Rights Activist Award from SC Black Pride. In addition, he is a three-time nominee of the Ed Madden Media Advocacy Award from SC Pride.